You Only Live Twice (1967), often abbreviated as YOLT, is the fifth James Bond film, and the fifth starring Sean Connery. After Bond fakes his death to fall off the radar, he is sent to Japan to investigate SPECTRE's latest plot to spark a nuclear war by interfering in the Space Race. A little known fact about it is that the screenplay was written by children's book writer Roald Dahl, a good friend of Ian Fleming.

Notably, this was the first film to deviate significantly from the source novel, which has Bond, still reeling from the tragic events of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, being sent by M on an extremely tricky diplomatic mission to Japan in an attempt to shake him out of his Heroic BSOD. The novel was considered to be unfilmable, so they had to almost completely rewrite the plot. Apart from the Japanese setting, the basic characters of Tiger Tanaka and Dikko Henderson (both of whom were portrayed completely differently in the film), and Blofeld as the villain, it has little in common with its film adaptation.

Many of the most widely known and celebrated Bond tropes come from this movie, including Ken Adam's giant volcano set. Most famous, however, is the genre-defining performance from Donald Pleasence as Blofeld, complete with a fluffy white cat to stroke - many people are surprised to be told this is actually the only one Pleasence is in (though the character himself shows up a few more times). This Blofeld was specifically parodied as Doctor Evil in Austin Powers, as were a few other tropes such as the hollowed out volcano lair.

The producers tried to do as in the book and use a castle by the sea. However, they found out there's no such thing in Japan (they are built well into land because of typhoons). The solution they found? A volcano base!

Roald Dahl had to create a new plot as he considered that the book was more of a travelogue than a novel (see In Name Only, below).

Agents Dating: Bond has a dinner with his "wife" Kissy (an agent who works for Tanaka) in which Kissy informs him that they're sleeping in separate rooms. Bond protests "But we're supposed to be married. We're on our honeymoon!", but Kissy replies "Not honeymoon. This is business."

Bilingual Bonus: Bond is having his chest hair dyed to look more Japanese. Bond: "Why don't you just dye the parts that show?" Aki (in Japanese, untranslated): "That's a secret only we know!"

Blofeld Ploy: Done twice in this one, by you-know-who. First he uses it to kill Helga instead of Osato, and then later he hilariously points a gun at Bond and shoots Osato, only to attempt to kill Bond again mere seconds later in another location where he's conveniently subdued by one of Tiger's shurikens.

Bond Villain Stupidity: Blofeld actually calls his underlings out on this. When he captures Bond himself, he does make a mistake that allows Bond to escape (he shoots Osato first), but that doesn't seem to be an example of this as Bond was saved by events out of Blofeld's control.

California Doubling: The underwater scenes are supposed to be Gibraltar, but were shot in the Bahamas; also, since Japan didn't allow for Stuff Blowing Up in a national park, parts of the Little Nellie battle were shot in Spain.

Coitus Ensues: Subverted. Kissy emphatically insisted her fake marriage was strictly business and would not be consummated for their "honeymoon." This being a Bond movie, they still tried to do it, almost during a mission at that! Unfortunately M interrupted by surfacing a submarine direct beneath them while they were just getting started.

Elaborate Underground Base: The SPECTRE launch facility. Entirely apart from all the side tunnels, the main set is staggeringly huge.

Epic Tracking Shot: Bond fights his way across the bad guys' port, filmed by a helicopter very high above the action so it looks like a bunch of ants fighting. Combined with the jazzy instrumental of the theme song playing, it is awesome. (It also makes it easier to conceal the fact Sean Connery is probably being doubled.)

Faking the Dead: Bond in the beginning, complete with through-and-through bullet holes and fake blood.

False Flag Operation: SPECTRE does this to the U.S. and U.S.S.R. to make each think that the other is stealing its space capsules.

Fanservice: Should go without saying in a Bond movie. Examples include Bond main girl, Kissy Suzuki, wearing a white bikini while hiking up the Big Bad's lair. Eventually she puts on a sort of small bathrobe-kimono only to get rid of it later. For pretty much the last quarter of the film she's in a bikini. Also Tanaka's bath servants. Later on when Bond takes a Japanese identity the female makeup artists apply the Japanese makeup to Bond in an operating theater wearing bikinis!

Fast Roping: This is how Tiger Tanaka's ninjas descend into Blofeld's volcano base, but with a special roller apparatus to allow them to descend as fast as safely possible.

Fiery Redhead: Helga Brandt (which makes her actress - who is a brunette - saying the producers were looking for a blue-eyed blonde kind of weird...).

Getting Crap Past the Radar: After Bond arrives at his home with his "wife" Kissy, they have dinner in which Kissy informs him that they're sleeping in separate rooms. Bond protests "But we're supposed to be married. We're on our honeymoon!", but Kissy replies "Not honeymoon. This is business." Bond answers "Then I won't be needing these...", as he pushes his plate away. What they're having for dinner are oysters, which are a known aphrodisiac.

Giant Mook: Hans and the Japanese driver who unknowingly picks Bond and takes him to Osato Industries.

I Need a Freaking Drink: After taking out a henchman during the fight in Osato's office, Bond breaks into a cupboard and takes a drink. Unfortunately for him, the only thing available is Siamese Vodka.

IKEA Weaponry: "Little Nellie" is always packed up in kit-form until needed.

In Name Only: The movie has extremely little in common with the novel by Ian Fleming - though the novel (which was about Bond taking a contract on Blofeld and shutting down his garden full of ways for visitors to commit suicide in exchange for the take from one of Tanaka's intelligence sources) was considered completely unfilmable. The producers allowed Roald Dahl to create a new plot, given he followed the formula by not derailing Bond's character and having him romance three women, so the writer added a space program story similar to Dr. No.

Katanas Are Just Better: While the Ninja squad that rescues Bond near the end do use some more modern equipment, there are still plenty of shots of them using shuriken and ninja blades successfully against the SMG armed minions.

Oh Crap!: Osato acts that way after he sees Blofeld's killing of his female underling after she failed him. Before he was calmly walking away, but after Blofeld's deed, after which the Big Bad roars, "Kill Bond, NOW!", Osato scampers up the stairs in fright at his truly crazy boss.

The Oner: An extended helicopter tracking shot as Bond runs across a roof fighting SPECTRE minions.

Organ Dodge: Played with. Bond meets contact Dikko Henderson, borrows his walking stick, and smacks him hard in the leg — which is wooden and proves it really is him. Henderson is just glad he got the correct leg.

Rare Guns: Tiger Tanaka's army utilizes Gyrojet pistols and rifles, in what is one of the few times the Gyrojet is seen used on film. They also used them in the book. Justified; at the time the film was made, Gyrojets were still available for sale and weren't the absurdly rare weapons they are today.

Reality Is Unrealistic: The volcano set is so immense it looks like it was all done with miniatures—but as the documentary featurette reveals, they actually built the whole huge set and flew real helicopters into it.

Recycled In Space: Inverted. This is the original attempt to trigger Nuclear War between Russia and the US, but it has since spawned many imitators; the plot would be recycled in the series itself for the 10th Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me, but its this one that is actually based in space.

Red China: Heavily implied that they are the ones who hired Blofeld to do all this.

Trap Door: Blofeld has a bridge that collapses on command, dropping whatever is on it into the piranha-infested water. Also when Japanese Secret Service chief Tiger Tanaka uses one of these (plus a slide) on Bond.

Unusually Uninteresting Sight: It seems that, in a time when the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. had a monopoly on space flight, the people of Japan thought nothing of a rocket launch from one of their islands.

When the Clock Strikes Twelve: After the Americans move their launch up to midnight, Bond has to move quickly find the SPECTRE base and stop their plot.

Yellowface: Mostly averted; set in Japan, the movie features many well-known Japanese actors and actresses (and a Chinese actress in the beginning). But in a rare in-universe example, Bond spends time disguised as a Japanese peasant.

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